SolidWorks Changing the renew policy??

Anyone heard for sure if it is true that SW is following AD$K in the license policy?

Basically you will pay all back maintenance up to the full price of the software after Jan 2016 if you let the maintenance lapse. I am not sure linking to the SW forum discussion would work since you need to log in but here is some quotes.

Effective January 1, 2016, licenses with expired subscription will be required to pay the subscription cost for the period of time the license was not under Subscription. This change effects all DS SOLIDWORKS products and is consistent with industry norms as well all Dassault Systemes products. For specific details regarding your license, please contact your SOLIDWORKS Value Added Partner.

Customers will be required to pay the full term of the lapsed subscriptions - up to the cost of the original software purchase.

Because this is a new change they are imposing a 90 day grace period for the reinstallation fee that only runs to the end of the year.

Any subscription service that has lapsed and is renewed within 90 days of the lapse, will be reduced to a $100 reinstallation fee per seat instead of $500.

More than 90 days since the lapse will still be the $500 per seat fee.

After January 1, 2016 the grace period is over and the fee will be 1/12th of the full subscription cost - per month - per seat - since the lapse - up to the cost of the original software purchase.

What is the new Subscription late policy?
Since its inception, SOLIDWORKS has offered users the ability to renew expired licenses for an established and nominal fee. For example, $500 in NA, or a similar fee across other price lists, regardless of how long the licenses have been off subscription. Additionally, license repurchase was required for expired EPDM licenses. Beginning January 1, 2016 the current Subscription late fee and repurchase requirement will be replaced with full Subscription backdating. As a result, users with an expired Subscription will be subject to all missed Subscription charges (up to the cost of a new license) plus the current year charge to renew the expired license and obtain the current release with full support. This policy applies to all SOLIDWORKS product offerings and includes licenses that were never on Subscription

If this is true and they go through with it I bet Onshape.com will be throwing a party!!! Best thing that could happen to them.

What does SW come up with every year that makes keeping up to date worthwhile? At some point, don't these software packages mature and become practically good enough? Kind of like Microsoft and their need to crank out new operating systems.....there's got to be a point where we don't need new any more.

What does SW come up with every year that makes keeping up to date worthwhile? At some point, don't these software packages mature and become practically good enough? Kind of like Microsoft and their need to crank out new operating systems.....there's got to be a point where we don't need new any more.

I agree and feel that is why they are moving to this business model, very similar to ADSK.

Now if my customers would quit upgrading every year maybe I could skip a year or so.

I have many customers still running 2008. I still use 2012. I see no need to upgrade at this point. It does everything I want and runs HSMworks just fine.

Good point but it would not work in reverse. Unless you customers just supply you with cad neutral formats. I prefer to get native SW files if possible, but that is probably about to change

Do you stay current on HSMWorks? I thought they only went back 3 years. If you plan to stay current what will you do if HSMWorks 2016 wont install in SW2012? My problem is some what the opposite, I dropped HSMWorks maintenance and am entitled to SW 2016 but won't be able to install since HSMWorks is not forward compatible.

Now if my customers would quit upgrading every year maybe I could skip a year or so.

Working for a big corporation, I'm pretty much forced to keep the subscription going. It's a huge PITA to let it lapse, and then have to go though the whole process of getting things going again with way too many IT and mgmt. hoops to jump through. It doesn't make much sense, but the subscription payments sail right through with no questions asked, and the IT people strongly encourage updates to the latest version of any software installed on our computers for "security reasons".

I'm using SW 2015 now. I'm getting ready to send some sheet metal RFQs out to a couple potential new sheet metal vendors, and am worried about compatibility issues as I think they're running older versions. Hopefully it won't be a problem.

It is really nasty that one cannot save the file in older version and forcing the clients to upgrade forever. And indeed, the new versions do not offer much, if anything new. Especially if you find the version you using adequate.
I just was "forced" to upgrade to 2015 as many of my customers are using it. And since some are using older versions, they cannot use my native SW format files.

A friend just received some SW2015 part models and found he couldn't open them with SW2014. He sent them to me to see if Rhino could open them but while I've had no trouble with opening SW files in the past the 2015 files wouldn't open. McNeel says that SW2015 import ability will go into Rhino 6, but that's not anywhere close to release.

I've been using SW full time since about 2008. There's nothing the newer versions can do that 2008 couldn't. There have been some new features, but they are never something I was in need of. SW Electrical came out which is a big thing. This is all a big PITA. Every new version creates new problems, often problems with older parts that never had errors in the previous version. Nothing is backwards compatible, so if you haven't upgraded, you'll get tons of crashes trying to open a newer part. Someone made the comment that SW got fat on a croissant diet after Dassault bought them, I think they are correct. More RAM to do the same stuff as before. In the last 15 years software companies have figured out how to keep getting paid after the sale. I'm shopping for a new platform currently. Solidedge offers monthly subscription which looks good and Geomagic is another decent option.

I've got Geomagic Design (I started with Alibre about 10 years ago) and they too have the "new files can't be opened in old versions" problem. The maintenance is $300/year, but I'm letting mine expire this month as the current version does more than I need and it is hard to justify $300 every year for hobby use, especially when a couple of years of skipped Geomagic maintenance should pay for the upgrade to Rhino 6 when that comes out.

I'm sure staying on the maintenance/upgrade bandwagon looks a lot different for commercial users of SW. But then those people are making money with the product and can count the fees as expenses when figuring their profits at tax time.

Does this mean if you have solidworks 08 and you haven't paid maintenance since 2010 you will owe for 5 years or you cannot use the software?

You can still use it, however if you want to upgrade to the newest version you will have to pay maintenance for all the years that you did not. In your case you would be better off getting a new seat and holding onto the 2008 (upgradeable to 2010) seat. Or you can get back onto maintenance before the end of the year and have the ability to upgrade to release 2016.

I buy the upgrade every year but only install it about every other year. The value of the subscription is not in the supposed increased capabilities, but in being able to call somebody and learn how to do something or solve a problem. There are times when $1300 for that would be CHEAP.

Maybe Dassault's competitors will start advertising that they won't rip you off, but I wouldn't bet on that. More likely they will adopt the same policy. What's the alternative, write your own photorealistic rendering program? Don't think so...

You can still use it, however if you want to upgrade to the newest version you will have to pay maintenance for all the years that you did not. In your case you would be better off getting a new seat and holding onto the 2008 (upgradeable to 2010) seat. Or you can get back onto maintenance before the end of the year and have the ability to upgrade to release 2016.

What does SW come up with every year that makes keeping up to date worthwhile? At some point, don't these software packages mature and become practically good enough? Kind of like Microsoft and their need to crank out new operating systems.....there's got to be a point where we don't need new any more.

Not a thing usually. They muck around the user interface, add useless cute graphics gimmicks, and add some hobbled bone from some expensive addon package to try to get you to bite, so they can claim there is something of value for overpriced maintenance fees. Maintenance on any software package should be 200-500 per year not 5-10x that. Not just sw, all of em, the more expensive, the more unreasonable.

Problem is old versions and new versions don't chide so the added maintenance will bring all up to speed. Its nice to be up to speed but another fist 'full of dollars' can make Clint Eastwood cringe in disgust.

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